<<Unedited>> This is from a soon to be released part of the Badger Hole Bar
Agatha watched Fergus as he danced around on
the floor, darting among the boots of spacemen
and the softer shoes of the nonmilitary types that were drinking in the Badger
Hole Bar. At first, she had no idea why he was traveling such a labyrinth pathway but then realized something. Shadowing
him and carefully staying about three feet away was the spiderkat. The creature seemed obsessed with Fergus. And her
Familiar knew it.
Even knowing that Fergus could not be
permanently harmed by the creature, Agatha had started to rise from her chair
to go to his rescue when the short, Mongolian-looking man sitting next to her
put his hand lightly on her forearm.
“No harm will come to your partner. Clingon is interested and intrigued. He will do
no harm although I think they are both playing a game.”
Agatha stopped moving and looked at the man,
saying, “All right, I guess I can stop worrying. It is just that I’m not used
to him running around in a crowd of
people like this.”
“Perhaps, it is that he feels the same sense
of safety here that most of us feel.”
“He has been safe before and hasn’t acted like
this. I was just worried about why he was acting so strangely.”
The man made a tight, twisted grimace that the
young witch could not interpret and settled a bit deeper into his seat. Cocking
his head and looking carefully at Agatha, he said, “Some of it also may be a
difference in perceptions and acceptance. Here, he is not an oddity but simply
his own being. He is not the weirdest or
most outrageous being in the room, so he
does not stand out. Also, he sees that all that come here are accepted as who they are without judgment.”
Agatha had opened her mouth to say something
and stopped. Thinking about what the man had said, she realized that Fergus was
always “her” familiar. Very seldom was he treated as his own person. A flash of
guilt ran through her as she realized that in some ways she treated Fergus as
if he was only an extension of her rather
than a fully separate being. It is too
easy to start thinking that way, she thought to herself.
Turning her eyes back to the unicorn, she saw
that he was now up on the game table next to one of the card players. The table
had been full of card players for the entire time that Agatha and Fergus had
been in the bar, rotating people as they came and went. It was in a shadowed
back corner, an island of ordered interaction that seemed to absorb any attempt
to disrupt it.
Barely visible in the subtle lighting, the
spiderkat clung to the wall less than six feet from the table. His glowing eyes tracked the blue-maned unicorn, and his tail twitched with
every movement that Fergus made.
Fergus was intently watching the hand of one
of the players, silent but alert. That in itself was weird enough that
Agatha started once more to go check on him. The gentle hand on her forearm
stopped her again.
Looking from the hand up to its owner’s face,
she asked the short, yellow-skinned man,
“Is it something that you wanted?”
Desperately praying that he was not hitting on
her, Agatha was surprised when he said, “Yes. I understand that you are here
partially to explore some options for training and education, just like your
friend Zhanna.”
Relieved, Agatha
responded, “Yes, my responsibilities at home are changing, and it has been very
made very plain to me that while I have good power in my magic and have been
trained in certain areas of knowledge, that I need more of both. If I am to not
let my team down, I need to develop different skills and also train my magic
use for different tactical solutions.”
“Then I am correct in that your objectives are
to broaden your understanding of strategy and increase your skills of field
command. Yes?”
“Yes, mostly. I am not in a mercenary
position, nor am I really dealing with large strategic battles. However, I need
to understand how to manage and deploy my team in conflict situations, and I don’t think that I am the best I can be
right now.”
Just then the cheerful waitress zoomed over to
the table and flashed them a big smile.
Agatha couldn’t help smiling back at her, and she noticed that her companion was also
responding with a small grin. The warmth and caring that radiated off the
waitress was something that no one seemed to resist. Agatha felt her body
relaxing for the first time in a long time, and
she took a deep breath.
The waitress asked, “Time for refills?”
When both Agatha and her companion nodded
their heads in agreement, the waitress, whose name was Wynn, asked, “Same thing
for both of you?”
Once again, Wynn got their nods of acceptance,
and with the speed of a darting bee, the
woman was off at a run back to the bar for their drinks. Calling ahead to the
bartender as she moved, the woman announced, “Brechal, I need a refill on white wine and a tankard of Arkhi!”
Agatha still had a smile on her face when she
turned back to her companion. It suddenly occurred to her that she didn’t even
know the man’s name. Unsure about how to
ask him tactfully, the young witch just bumbled through it, face red in
embarrassment. “I am terribly sorry, but I don’t know your name. My name is
Agatha
The man smiled, and said, “Most of my friends
call me Subu or Wardog. You may choose what you prefer.”
Don't forget to pick up the first book in the series as well.
